Snake on a Train, In Japan

September 26, 2016

An unlikely stowaway caused a Japanese bullet train to make an unscheduled stop during morning rush hour Monday morning. A small snake, about 30cm in length (just shy of a foot long) was spotted between a passenger seat and the wall of the Tokaido line train car. According to Central Japan Railway Co. and the local police, the train, which was traveling between Tokyo and Hiroshima, made an unscheduled stop of just one minute at the Hamamatsu station and captured the snake, safely removing it from the train.

Central Japan Railway/Kyodo News

This snake was safely captured on a Japanese train.

Train staff made an announcement on the intercom asking if any passenger had lost a snake. Nobody came forward. The species of the snake was not identified, but it resembles a Japanese rat snake (Elaphe climacophora). Kyodo News reports that this was not the first instance of a snake on a bullet train in Japan. In 2011, a Honduran milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum hondurensis) was found on a train traveling between Osaka and Kyoto.